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600 results for “sex-specific”
Sex-specific non-structural carbohydrate variation and hydraulics explain differences in drought resistance of Populus euphratica females and males along an aridity gradient
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Sex-specific transgenerational effects of diet on offspring life history and physiology
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Experimentally induced intrasexual mating competition and sex-specific evolution in female and male nematodes
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Dataset Chronic water restriction triggers sex-specific oxidative stress and telomere shortening in lizards
<p>This dataset is related to "Chronic water restriction triggers sex-specific oxidative stress and telomere shortening in lizards" (Dupoué A., Angelier F., Ribout C., Meylan S., Rozen-Rechels D., Decencière B., Agostini S., Le Galliard J.-F.) </p> <p>The file reports the information on the responses of 100 yearling lizards identified with their code (lizard_ID), depending on their sex and hydric treatment. Abrevations: </p> <p>SVL: Snout-vent length</p> <p>ROM: Reactive Oxygen Metabolites (an index of oxidative damages)</p> <p>OXY: Non-enzymatic antioxydant activities (an index of defences)</p> <p>TL: Telomere length</p>
Data from: Social effects on age-related and sex-specific immune cell profiles in a wild mammal
<p>Evidence for age-related changes in innate and adaptive immune responses is increasing in wild populations. Such changes have been linked to fitness, and knowledge of the factors driving immune response variation is important for understanding the evolution of immunity. Age-related changes in immune profiles may be due to factors such as immune system development, sex-specific behaviour and responses to environmental conditions. Social environments may also contribute to variation in immunological responses, for example, through transmission of pathogens and stress arising from resource and mate competition. Yet, the impact of the social environment on age-related changes in immune cell profiles is currently understudied in the wild. Here, we tested the relationship between leukocyte cell composition (proportion of neutrophils and lymphocytes [innate and adaptive immunity, respectively] that were lymphocytes) and age, sex, and group size in a wild population of European badgers (<i>Meles meles</i>). We found that the proportion of lymphocytes in early-life was greater in males in smaller groups compared to larger groups, but with a faster age-related decline in smaller groups. In contrast, the proportion of lymphocytes in females was not significantly related to age or group size. Our results provide evidence of sex-specific age-related changes in immune cell profiles in a wild mammal, which are influenced by the social environment.</p>
Sex-specific transgenerational plasticity II: Grandpaternal effects are lineage- and sex-specific in threespined sticklebacks
<p>1. Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) occurs when the environment encountered by one generation (F0) alters the phenotypes of one or more future generations (e.g. F1 and F2). Sex selective TGP, via specific lineages or to only male or female descendants, has been underexplored in natural systems, and may be adaptive if it allows past generations to fine-tune the phenotypes of future generations in response to sex-specific life history strategies. </p> <p>2. We sought to understand if exposing males to predation risk can influence grandoffspring via sperm in threespined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We specifically tested the hypothesis that grandparental effects are transmitted in a sex-specific way down the male lineage, from paternal grandfathers to F2 males. </p> <p>3. We reared F1 offspring of unexposed and predator-exposed F0 males under 'control' conditions and used them to generate F2s with control grandfathers, a predator-exposed maternal grandfather (i.e., predator-exposed F0 males to F1 daughters to F2 offspring), a predator-exposed paternal grandfather (i.e., predator-exposed F0 males to F1 sons to F2 offspring), or two predator-exposed grandfathers. We then assayed male and female F2s for a variety of traits related to antipredator defense. </p> <p>4. We found little evidence that transgenerational effects were mediated to only male descendants via the paternal lineage. Instead, grandpaternal effects depended on lineage and were mediated largely across sexes, from F1 males to F2 females and from F1 females to F2 males. When their paternal grandfather was exposed to predation risk, female F2s were heavier and showed a reduced change in behavior in response to a simulated predator attack relative to offspring of control, unexposed grandparents. In contrast, male F2s showed reduced antipredator behavior when their maternal grandfather was exposed to predation risk. However, these patterns were only evident when one grandfather, but not both grandfathers, was exposed to predation risk, suggesting the potential for non-additive interactions across lineages.</p> <p>5. If sex-specific and lineage effects are common, then grandparental effects are likely underestimated in the literature. These results draw attention to the importance of sex-selective inheritance of environmental effects and raise new questions about the proximate and ultimate causes of selective transmission across generations.</p>
Social competition stimulates cognitive performance in a sex-specific manner
Social interactions are thought to be a critical driver in the evolution of cognitive ability. Cooperative interactions, such as pair bonding, rather than competitive interactions have been largely implicated in the evolution of increased cognition. This is despite competition traditionally being a very strong driver of trait evolution. Males of many species track changes in their social environment and alter their reproductive strategies in response to anticipated levels of competition. We predict this to be cognitively challenging. Using a Drosophila melanogaster model we are able to distinguish between the effects of a competitive environment versus generic social contact by exposing flies to same-sex same-species competition vs different species partners, shown to pose non-competitive contacts. Males increase olfactory learning/memory and visual memory after exposure to conspecific males only, a pattern echoed by increased expression of synaptic genes and an increased need for sleep. For females, largely not affected by mating competition, the opposite pattern was seen. The results indicate that specific social contacts dependent on sex, not simply generic social stimulation, may be an important evolutionary driver for cognitive ability in fruit flies.
Assigning the sex-specific markers via genotyping-by-sequencing onto the Y chromosome for a torrent frog Amolops mantzorum
<p><span>We use a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach to identify sex-linked markers in a torrent frog (<i>Amolops mantzorum</i>) using wild-caught individuals of 21 males and 19 females from the same population. A total of 141 putatively sex-linked markers were screened from 1,015,964 GBS tags through three approaches, respectively based on sex differences in allele frequencies, sex difference in heterozygosity, and sex-limited occurrence. With validations, 69 sex-linked markers were confirmed, all of which point to male heterogamety. The male specificity of eight sex markers was further verified by PCR amplifications with a large number of additional individuals covering the whole geographic distribution of the species. Y chromosome (No. 5) was microdissected under a light microscope, amplified by whole-genome amplification, and assembled a draft Y genome. 55 out of 69 sex-linked markers could be mapped to the Y chromosome assembly (i.e 79.7 %). Thus the chromosome 5 could be added as candidate chromosomes that particularly favored to recruit for sex determination than others among frogs. Three sex-linked markers that mapped on Y chromosome were aligned to three different promoter regions of <i>Rana rugosa</i> CYP19A1 gene, which might be considered as a candidate gene to trigger sex determination in <i>A</i>.<i> mantzorum</i>.</span></p>
Sex-specific sterility caused by extreme temperatures is likely to create cryptic changes to the operational sex ratio in Drosophila virilis
<p>Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of short-term heat shocks that threaten the persistence of natural populations. The effect of thermal stress on natural selection is a common topic of debate, but high temperatures can also influence sexual selection. Typically, males and females of a species can survive at similar extreme temperatures, but males have been shown to lose fertility at lower temperatures than females. Here, we examine how a brief exposure of pupae to high temperatures in the fruit fly Drosophila virilis affects adult fertility in both males and females. We find strong sexual dimorphism in temperature-induced sterility. This has the potential to quickly and unpredictably create populations composed of mostly sterile males and fertile females, resulting in changes to the operational sex ratio (OSR). These disruptions are likely to be cryptic and difficult to measure in the wild, especially considering that males can eventually recover fertility and that sterile males of some species can still copulate. Changes to the OSR in this way are likely to influence sexual selection by favouring females that can discriminate between fertile and sterilised males, and possibly leading to female-female conflict over a limited pool of fertile males. Further research on how cryptic disruptions to the OSR affect sexual selection dynamics is critical for understanding the impact of environmental change on biodiversity.</p>
Plumage and eggshell colouration covary with the level of sex-specific parental contributions to nest building in birds
<p>Interspecific variation in sex-specific contributions to prenatal parental care, including avian nest building, remain poorly understood. Here, we examined whether the colouration of the parents and of their eggs covary with sex-specific nest building contributions in 521 species of Western Palearctic birds. Having colourful plumages and laying colourful eggs are both costly because of the deposition of pigments (in feathers and eggs) and/or forming costly nanostructural substrates (in feathers), and so it is expected that those costs are traded-off against the costs of nest building. We therefore tested two predictions of this trade-off hypothesis, namely that species in which females alone build nests (1) exhibit sexual plumage dichromatism in that females are less colourful than males and (2) lay less colourful eggs. Using a phylogenetically-informed comparative approach, we found support for the first prediction so that species in which females build nests alone or together with males are more likely to be dichromatic in plumage. Meanwhile, regarding the second prediction, contrary to our expectation, we found that species in which females build nests alone or together with males are more likely to lay colourfully pigmented eggs relative to species in which only males build nests. This suggests that sex differences in plumage colouration and egg colouration covary in a complex manner with female pre-copulatory investment in reproduction at the interspecific level.</p>
Data from: Sex-specific patterns of aging on sexual ornaments and gametes
Sex differences in age-dependent mortality and reproductive success are predicted to drive the evolution of sexually dimorphic patterns of reproductive investment over life. However, this prediction has not been fully explored because it is difficult to measure primary and secondary sexual traits over the life spans of males and females. Here we studied a population of fowl, Gallus gallus, to gain longitudinal data on a sexual ornament (the comb), quantity of gametes produced, and gamete quality (sperm velocity and egg mass) of males and females. Our results reveal pronounced differences between the sexes in age-specific patterns of reproductive investment. In males, comb size decreased linearly with age, high sperm quality early in life was associated with reduced sperm quality late in life, and high sperm production was related to early death. In contrast, female comb size and egg mass were maximized at intermediate ages, and fecundity was independent of life span. Finally, the way traits were related in males did not change over life, whereas in females the association between fecundity and comb size changed from positive to negative over the lifetime of a female, indicating that aging may lead to trade-offs in investment between traits in females. These results show that males and females differ in reproductive investment with age, in terms of both the expression of individual traits and their phenotypic covariance.
Data from: Variations in age- and sex-specific survival rates help explain population trend in a discrete marine mammal population
1. Understanding the drivers underlying fluctuations in the size of animal populations is central to ecology, conservation biology and wildlife management. Reliable estimates of survival probabilities are key to population viability assessments, and patterns of variation in survival can help inferring the causal factors behind detected changes in population size. 2. We investigated whether variation in age and sex-specific survival probabilities could help explain the increasing trend in population size detected in a small, discrete population of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus off the east coast of Scotland. 3. To estimate annual survival probabilities we applied capture-recapture models to photo-identification data collected from 1989 to 2015. We used robust design models accounting for temporary emigration to estimate juvenile and adult survival, multi-state models to estimate sex-specific survival, and age-models to estimate calf survival. 4. We found strong support for an increase in juvenile/adult annual survival from 93.1% to 96.0% over the study period, most likely caused by a change in juvenile survival. Examination of sex-specific variation showed weaker support for this trend being a result of increasing female survival, which was overall higher than for males and animals of unknown sex. Calf survival was lower in the first than second year; a bias in estimating third-year survival will likely exist in similar studies. There was some support first-born calf survival being lower than for calves born subsequently. 5. Coastal marine mammal populations are subject to the impacts of environmental change, increasing anthropogenic disturbance and the effects of management measures. Survival estimates are essential to improve our understanding of population dynamics and help predict how future pressures may impact populations, but obtaining robust information on the life history of long-lived species is challenging. Our study illustrates how knowledge of survival can be increased by applying a robust analytical framework to photo-identification data.
Data from: Sex-specific winter distribution in a sexually dimorphic shorebird is explained by resource partitioning
Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) implies correlated differences in energetic requirements and feeding opportunities, such that sexes will face different trade-offs in habitat selection. In seasonal migrants, this could result in a differential spatial distribution across the wintering range. To identify the ecological causes of sexual spatial segregation, we studied a sexually dimorphic shorebird, the bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica, in which females have a larger body and a longer bill than males. With respect to the trade-offs that these migratory shorebirds experience in their choice of wintering area, northern and colder wintering sites have the benefit of being closer to the Arctic breeding grounds. According to Bergmann's rule, the larger females should incur lower energetic costs per unit of body mass over males, helping them to winter in the cold. However, as the sexes have rather different bill lengths, differences in sex-specific wintering sites could also be due to the vertical distribution of their buried prey, that is, resource partitioning. Here, in a comparison between six main intertidal wintering areas across the entire winter range of the lapponica subspecies in northwest Europe, we show that the percentage of females between sites was not correlated with the cost of wintering, but was positively correlated with the biomass in the bottom layer and negatively with the biomass in the top layer. We conclude that resource partitioning, rather than relative expenditure advantages, best explains the differential spatial distribution of male and female bar-tailed godwits across northwest Europe.
Data from: Sex-specific effects of outbreeding on offspring quality in pike (Esox lucius)
Intraspecific genetic admixture occurs when previously separated populations within a species start interbreeding, and it can have either positive, negative or netural effects on reproductive performance. There is currently little knowledge regarding what determines the outcome of admixture. We tested for effects of admixture on offspring quality in three subpopulations of pike (Esox lucius). Gametes were collected in the field, and eggs from each female were experimentally fertilized with milt from a male from each population (one 'pure' and two 'admixed' treatments). Three offspring quality measures (hatching success, fry survival, and fry length) were determined and compared between (i) pure and admixed population combinations, and (ii) the sex-specific treatments within each admixed population combination (based on the origin of the male and female respectively). The results revealed that although there were no overall effects of admixture on offspring quality, the consequences for a given population combination could be sex-specific and thus differ depending on which of the parents originated from one or the other population. All offspring quality traits were influenced by both maternal ID and paternal ID. Sex- and individual-specific effects can have implications for dispersal behavior and gene flow between natural populations, and are important to consider in conservation efforts.
Data from: Rapid sex-specific evolution of age at maturity is shaped by genetic architecture in Atlantic salmon
Understanding the mechanisms by which populations adapt to their environments is a fundamental aim in biology. However, it remains challenging to identify the genetic basis of traits, provide evidence of genetic changes and quantify phenotypic responses. Age at maturity in Atlantic salmon represents an ideal trait to study contemporary adaptive evolution as it has been associated with a single locus in the vgll3 region, and has also strongly changed in recent decades. Here, we provide an empirical example of contemporary adaptive evolution of a large effect locus driving contrasting sex-specific evolutionary responses at the phenotypic level. We identified an 18% decrease in the vgll3 allele associated with late maturity (L) in a large and diverse salmon population over 36 years, induced by sex-specific selection during the sea migration. Those genetic changes resulted in a significant evolutionary response in males only, due to sex-specific dominance patterns and vgll3 allelic effects. The vgll3 allelic and dominance effects differed greatly in a second population and were likely to generate different selection and evolutionary patterns. Our study highlights the importance of knowledge of genetic architecture to better understand fitness trait evolution and phenotypic diversity. It also emphasizes the potential role of adaptive evolution in the trend toward earlier maturation observed in numerous Atlantic salmon populations worldwide.
Data from: Sex-specific and individual preferences for hunting strategies in white sharks
Fine-scale predator movements may be driven by many factors including sex, habitat, and distribution of resources. There may also be individual preferences for certain movement strategies within a population which can be hard to quantify. Within top predators, movements are also going to be directly related to the mode of hunting; for example sit-and-wait or actively searching for prey. Although there is mounting evidence that different hunting modes can cause opposing trophic cascades, there has been little focus on the modes used by top predators, especially those in the marine environment. Adult white sharks (Carcharhodon carcharias) are well known to forage on marine mammal prey, particularly pinnipeds. Sharks primarily ambush pinnipeds on the surface but there has been less focus on the strategies they use to encounter prey. We applied mixed hidden Markov models to acoustic tracking data of white sharks in a coastal aggregation area in order to quantify changing movement states (Area Restricted Searching (ARS) vs. patrolling) and the factors that influenced them. Individuals were re-tracked over multiple days throughout a month to see if state-switching dynamics varied or if individuals preferred certain movement strategies. Sharks were more likely to use ARS movements in the morning and during periods of chumming by ecotourism operators. Furthermore, the proportion of time individuals spent in the two different states and the state-switching frequency, differed between the sexes and between individuals. Predation attempts/success on pinnipeds were observed for sharks in both ARS and patrolling movement states and within all random effects groupings. Therefore white sharks can use both a 'sit-and-wait' (ARS) and 'active searching' (patrolling) movements to ambush pinniped prey on the surface. White sharks demonstrate individual preferences for fine scale movement patterns which may be related to their use of different hunting modes. Marine top predators are generally assumed to use only one type of hunting mode, but we show that there is likely a mix within populations. As such, individual variability should be considered when modelling behavioural effects of predators on prey species.
Data from: Sex-specific arrival times on the breeding grounds: hybridizing migratory skuas provide empirical support for the role of sex ratios
In migratory animals, protandry (earlier arrival of males on the breeding grounds) prevails over protogyny (females preceding males). In theory, sex differences in timing of arrival should be driven by the operational sex ratio, shifting toward protogyny in female-biased populations. However, empirical support for this hypothesis is, to date, lacking. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed arrival data from three populations of the long-distance migratory south polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki). These populations differed in their operational sex ratio caused by the unidirectional hybridization of male south polar skuas with female brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi). We found that arrival times were protandrous in allopatry, shifting toward protogyny in female-biased populations when breeding in sympatry. This unique observation is consistent with theoretical predictions that sex-specific arrival times should be influenced by sex ratio and that protogyny should be observed in populations with female-biased operational sex ratio.
Data from: Parting ways: Parasite release in nature leads to sex-specific evolution of defense
We evaluate the extent to which males and females evolve along similar or different trajectories in response to the same environmental shift. Specifically, we use replicate experimental introductions in nature to consider how release from a key parasite (Gyrodactylus) generates similar or different defense evolution in male versus female guppies (Poecilia reticulata). After 8-12 generations of evolution, guppies were collected from the ancestral (parasite still present) and derived (parasite now absent) populations and bred for two generations in the laboratory to control for non-genetic effects. These F2 guppies were then individually infected with Gyrodactylus and infection dynamics were monitored on each fish. We found that parasite release in nature led to sex-specific evolutionary responses: males did not show much evolution of resistance, whereas females showed the evolution of increased resistance. Given that male guppies in the ancestral population had greater resistance to Gyrodactylus than did females, evolution in the derived populations led to reduction of sexual dimorphism in resistance. We argue that previous selection for high resistance in males constrained (relative to females) further evolution of the trait. We advocate more experiments considering sex-specific evolutionary responses to environmental change.
Data from: Contact networks structured by sex underpin sex-specific epidemiology of infection
Contact networks are fundamental to the transmission of infection and host sex often affects the acquisition and progression of infection. However, the epidemiological impacts of sex-related variation in animal contact networks have rarely been investigated. We test the hypothesis that sex-biases in infection are related to variation in multilayer contact networks structured by sex in a population of European badgers Meles meles naturally infected with Mycobacterium bovis. Our key results are that male-male and between-sex networks are structured at broader spatial scales than female-female networks and that in male-male and between-sex contact networks, but not female-female networks, there is a significant relationship between infection and contacts with individuals in other groups. These sex differences in social behaviour may underpin male-biased acquisition of infection and may result in males being responsible for more between-group transmission. This highlights the importance of sex-related variation in host behaviour when managing animal diseases.
Data from: Testing the adaptive significance of sex-specific mating tactics in collared lizards (Crotaphytus collaris)
We tested whether territorial defence is adaptive in male collared lizards by examining the extent to which territory owners monopolize females. We also tested whether females benefit by mating with multiple males using alternative tactics when local sex ratios varied. Surprisingly, neither the number of offspring that males sired, nor the number of females that males mated with varied as a consequence of highly variable local sex ratios. Moreover, both the number of offspring sired and the number of female mates were independent of male social status. Courtship frequency was under positive directional sexual selection for mating success for territorial males. None of the phenotypic traits that we examined were targets of sexual selection in nonterritorial males. Although offspring survivorship decreased with the degree of multiple mating, females mated multiply with similar numbers of territorial and nonterritorial males during all three seasons. Females did not obtain material or genetic benefits that balanced the apparent offspring survival cost imposed by mating with multiple males. Instead, females appeared to be 'making the best of a bad job', perhaps because the abundance of hiding places used by subordinate males makes it difficult for females to avoid male harassment.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.